Leonard Koren on Life as an Aesthetic Experience

For as long as he can remember, Leonard Koren has been searching for beauty and pleasure. Throughout his career, the author and artist—he prefers the term “creator”—has spent considerable time putting to paper expressions and conceptual views that architects, artists, designers, and others have long struggled to find the proper framing of or words for. In 1976, when he launched the counterculture publication WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, he ushered in the idea of “gourmet bathing,” which has maintained a potent cultural niche in the nearly 50 years since. With Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, published in 1994, Koren introduced the Japanese expression for “beautiful, imperfect, and impermanent” to the West, where it quickly took on a life of its own. Perhaps one of Koren’s greatest talents is his rare ability to translate philosophical meditations on seemingly esoteric subjects into accessible, approachable texts about ways of being, seeing, thinking, making, and feeling. 

On the episode, Koren details his best—and worst—baths, and explains why he views his life as one long aesthetic experience.

Special thanks to our Season 11 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:
Leonard Koren

[4:01] “Undesigning the Bath”

[7:30] Century Tower

[7:30] 7132 Hotel (Therme Vals)

[9:26] “WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing”

[9:26] Max Palevsky

[9:26] Craig Elwood

[13:32] “From ‘WET’ to ‘Wabi-Sabi’: Leonard Koren’s Adventurous Aesthetic Journey”

[13:32] Mick Jagger

[13:32] Richard Gere

[13:32] Debbie Harry

[17:09] Charlie Haas

[18:25] “The Slow Lane”

[18:25] Pilar Viladas

[21:49] “How to Take a Japanese Bath”

[21:49] “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers”

[21:49] “Wabi-Sabi: Further Thoughts”

[28:23] Okakura Kakuzō’s “The Book of Tea”

[31:38] Glenn Adamson

[31:38] Sen no Rikyū

[39:29] “Noise Reduction: A 10-Minute Meditation for Quieting the Mind”

[42:32] “The Haggler’s Handbook”

[44:22] “283 Useful Ideas from Japan”

[46:56] “The Flower Shop”

[46:56] Blumenkraft

[46:56] “On Creating Things Aesthetic”

[46:56] “Which “Aesthetics” Do You Mean?”